Los Angeles Lakers forward Nick Young, left, pushes Detroit Pistons forward Anthony Tolliver after a hard foul in the second half of an NBA basketball game Sunday in Auburn Hills, Mich. Young was ejected from the game.

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. >> The frustration already brewed privately for Nick Young as he sat through a pair of healthy scratches. The Lakers’ poor season did not help, either.

So as Detroit forward Anthony Tolliver delivered a clean foul on Young’s fourth-quarter dunk attempt, something uglier happened than the Lakers’ 111-91 loss to the Pistons on Sunday at the Palace of Auburn Hills. Young pushed back and delivered a forearm at Tolliver’s throat, a sequence that earned both a flagrant foul 2 and an ejection with 8:58 remaining.

Young took offense that Tolliver “killed me a little bit” despite the lopsided deficit. But Young quickly added, “that’s my fault for reacting.”

“There’s a lot of frustrations,” Young said. “It was building up. Everything happened on that play. He just happened to be the one that sparked the incident.”

Young believed the NBA will not suspend him for today’s game in Toronto. He contended he did not punch Tolliver or deliver his forearm to his face. Still, Lakers coach Byron Scott argued Young “probably overreacted.”

“Tolliver didn’t go after him,” Scott said. “(Tolliver) went up and tried to contest the shot and wasn’t going to give (Young) a layup. I was surprised in the way Nick reacted to it.”

Young admitted feeling “shocked” he even played for seven minutes. Scott planned to sit him again. But Metta World Peace collected three early fouls, and Scott cleared the bench in the fourth quarter.

“You bought into what all these other guys are saying that he’s in the doghouse,” Scott said, shaking his head.

Young had recently described the Lakers as “a circus” and faulted both the coaching staff and players for the team’s inefficient offense. Yet, Scott insisted Young’s demotion stems from wanting to feature World Peace’s height advantage at small forward.

“I’m trying some other things,” Scott said. “I told him to be patient. As a matter of fact, he’s been great.”

Tough critic

The stoic nature in Jordan Clarkson’s personality masked his internal frustration that he described as “high.”

“I missed shots today because I was playing selfish and taking shots I don’t usually take,” said Clarkson, who posted seven points on 3-of-11 shooting. “I’m as hard as anybody on myself. I feel like I took bad shots and tough shots.”

Clarkson contended that “nobody was moving the ball” and added “we were all taking bad shots.” Yet, Kobe Bryant only marked the other high-volume shooter, with a 2-of-15 clip.

Mark Medina has been the Lakers beat writer for the Los Angeles Daily News since 2012. He also works as a Lakers insider for AM570 and is heard on national radio outlets, including The Dan Patrick Show, The Herd with Colin Cowherd, The Chris Mannix Show, Fox Sports Radio, CBS Sports Radio, Yahoo! Sports Radio and SB Nation Radio. Medina also appears frequently on Spectrum SportsNet and NBC4's "Going Roggin."

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